


A Rest in the Shade

by A_chaotic_person



Category: Brave (2012), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Fluff, Gen, Gift, not quite a sick fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28370082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_chaotic_person/pseuds/A_chaotic_person
Summary: “What on earth are ye doing here?”Jack rolled over like a fainting maiden to press his cheek to the stone and peer up at her. “It’s hot,” he moaned.
Relationships: Hiccup Haddock III & Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood) & Merida (Disney) & Rapunzel (Disney), Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Merida (Disney), Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Rapunzel (Disney), Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood) & Merida (Disney), Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood) & Rapunzel (Disney), Merida & Rapunzel (Disney)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	A Rest in the Shade

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OwlsWingFlying](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OwlsWingFlying/gifts).



> Hello all! This is a gift for OwlsWingWriting as part of this year's RoTBtD gift exchange. They requested something relating to their ongoing series- "Rise of Wizardry." I didn't have time to read all the books and still get this finished, so this takes place just after book three: School of Bravery, although I did my best to write it so that you don’t need to have read their series to understand this. Wishing you a Well Winter, OwlsWingWriting, and a celebration for the first chapter of the seventh book in your series!

Moaning came from the stairwell, bouncing off worn stones to land in Merida’s ear. Curious. This was—she looked around, noticing for the first time where she was—the back end of the castle on the second floor, in a corridor filled with abandoned classrooms. She must have taken it out of habit. Sure, she’d made up with her mother, but nearly the whole year was spent trying to avoid her. Seemed she was still taking the back ways around the castle.

She crept forwards, wary of who she might find. The year was nearly over, and it was a lovely day—warm, with just enough clouds to keep one safe from being blinded by the sun. What would someone be doing inside if they weren’t in class? She was certain Hiccup intended to head straight for the forbidden forest the instant his and Rapunzel’s double potions class let out.

Something glinted on the ground a few feet away. Creeping closer, she realized it was a puddle, reflecting the sun coming through a nearby window. There hadn’t been any rain for days. _Where did ye come from?_

“ _Uuuuughh._ ”

Well that didn’t sound good. Leaning around the corner, Merida could see—well, actually not a whole lot. The blocky staircase acted as a shield from the sunlight that draped itself about the abandoned corridor, and the stairwell—where she presumed the person who made the awful sounds sat—was heavily shadowed.

Considering her experiences with shadows, darkness, and- and the like, Merida was certain she was well within her rights to back away slowly. Still. She drew herself up, tightening her red and gold tie so that it appeared neater than the careless way she usually threw it on. If she could get out of her betrothal and face Mor’du—and her _mom_ —then there was no way she was letting some wimpy ghoul hiding behind the stairs scare her. She marched forwards, face set and wand at the ready to-

“Jack?”

The white-haired puddle she called a friend waved miserably, face-down on the floor. He’d all but discarded his uniform, black robes, overshirt, and his own silver-green tie thrown about the little space. He was left in a white t-shirt and black pants that he’d rolled up as high as he could. There were no shoes around, and Merida assumed he hadn’t even put them on that morning.

“What on earth are ye _doing_ here?”

Jack rolled over like a fainting maiden to press his cheek to the stone and peer up at her. “It’s _hot_ ,” he moaned.

Merida blinked. “Yes?” It’d been getting steadily warmer that last few weeks—where had he been? In the-? oh. _Oh_. Slytherin dormitories were in the _dungeons_ , kept cool by the lake just outside their windows.

Jack pushed himself up, slumping against the wall. “Yeah,” he huffed. “I don’t like it.”

Merida flopped down beside him. “It’s not e’en hotter than it was last year. What’s the problem?”

He looked at her, face flushed and sweat plastering his bangs to his forehead. “I think it’s ‘cause I came into my powers. It just feels so much _hotter_. I hate it.”

“Ye could just stay in your dormitory,” Merida suggested, but she knew he wouldn’t go for it. The year had been busy enough that the four friends had struggled to see each other. Plus, she doubted he would want to hang around the dungeons where any of the Slytherins that _still_ didn’t like the inter-house friendship could get at him.

Jack shook his head. “I want to _do_ things… but it’s _hot_.”

Merida hesitated. This wasn’t really the sort of thing she knew much about. “Have ye tried just… going outside?”

Even exhausted from the heat as he was, Jack managed to give her a half-lidded glare. “For some reason it _never_ occurred to me.” He brought a hand, red with sunburn, to his mouth and began blowing on it.

“Alright, alright,” Merida grumbled. “So ye did that. What about making it colder wherever you are?”

Miserable, he sighed. “I can do it in the dungeons no problem, but once I start getting hot I’m just too _tired_ to keep the temperature down. Guess it’s something to work on over the break.”

Well, this was a terrible conversation. “Right,” Merida decided, hopping to her feet. “You cannae have been the only winter sprite to have this problem. Let’s go to the hospital wing, see if they’ve got anything that can help.”

Jack slithered back to the floor and let his eyes shut. “I don’t want to move.” A glittering blue eye popped open to peer up at her. “Or put my robe on.”

Eyes rolling, she hoisted him up. “If I’m wearing my tie and robe then you haf’ta too.”

“Noooooooo-”

“ _Jack_ -”

* * *

Dr. Sweet rubbed his chin. “Overheating? Mm, I’ve got a couple of heatstroke remedies, but I don’t know what effects it’ll have on a winter sprite…”

Jack, who was sat on a bed and rumpling its probably recently made blankets, groaned. “This is terrible,” he declared. “I can’t even prank Professor Bunnymund-”

“You’re pranking him again?” Rapunzel came in, hair bound up and shining like the yellow lining of her robes. She set the stack of books she’d brought with her in a chair by an empty bed. “No, don’t tell me, I don’t want to- Jack! What happened?”

Honestly, Jack looked fine. Maybe a bit redder, and limper, and _okay_ listing it off those sounded pretty bad for someone as energetic and pale as Jack. Still! He was hot, not dying.

Dramatic as he was, Jack feigned a swoon. “It’s too hot.”

Rapunzel’s hands fluttered about and her eyebrows pinched. “Would burn treatment work? I mixed up a batch yesterday… A cure for sunsickness?” She turned to Dr. Sweet. “Is that an option?”

Dr. Sweet was frowning. He was generally an easygoing guy, so anything that twisted his features was Bad News. “We could try, but these are human remedies for things like dehydration and exhaustion in addition to overheating. It may not work the way it should.”

Really, they should just go for it. Jack had _no_ problem eating a random cake and getting turned into a bear (Merida blushed at her mistake), but he wouldn’t try random elixirs to solve a problem? Ridiculous.

Jack flopped back on the bed, resting a hand to his forehead. “Where’s Hiccup,” he asked—no, _demanded_. His voice rasped. “I need him to carry out the rest of my plans before I die.”

“Yer not _dyin_ ’,” Merida said. She felt for a moment as though she were underwater, pockets of air drifting up and bubbling through her thick hair. She shook it off. “If anything, _I’m_ dying listenin to ye complain.”

Jack huffed, before being hoisted upright, Dr. Sweet’s large hands on his shoulders. With a _crack_ and a _snick_ , Jack’s skinny shoulders were popped. Jack looked as though he been zapped by lightning, face frozen in shock.

Striding into what was effectively the nurse’s office, Dr. Sweet waved at them. “You kids just stay right there. Madam Eudora and I will sort something out.”

They did the easiest thing possible… they ignored what the grown-ups told them and sprinted off to the forest in hopes of finding Hiccup.

(Jack was actually hobbling, his staff an overlarge crutch that occasionally managed to lift him off the ground for a few paces. Considering their slow progress, it was a miracle they made it to the treeline without being stopped.)

* * *

For the record, _Merida_ found him first, _not_ Jack, so don’t listen to a word he says. While especially true in this instance, Not Listening to Jack was also good life advice in general—except for quidditch, she supposed. Jack knew a thing or two about quidditch. Anyways, she found Hiccup first, by the lake within the forest he’d snuck them off to when Merida was in the stranglehold of her mother still.

Hiccup was taking notes or something, crouched by the trunk of a large tree and scribbling intently until Jack slumped over his back, causing the shorter boy to fall over with a squawk. Jack laughed, the sound coming out easier in the shade by the coolness of a lake that rarely absorbed the sun’s rays.

“Jack!” Hiccup wiggled uselessly. “What are you—mmf—get off!”

“Can’t,” Jack huffed. “Dr. Sweet says I’m dying.”

“Wh-”

“He didnae say that!”

“Well I _feel_ like it.”

“Wait,” Hiccup said, managing to pull himself out from under the other boy to sit up. “Wait wait wait—Is Jack dying or not?”

“Yes!”

“No!”

Hiccup nodded, bewildered. “So- yes? That sucks.”

Sprawled on the earth with his elbows propping him up, Jack nodded too, with the dejected air of someone who found out the seasons would never change again. “You have to carry out my last wishes, Hiccup. It’s the only thing that’ll bring me peace.”

Hiccup squinted. “…No.”

Merida _cackled_ , laughter exploding out of her at Hiccup’s deadpan delivery. _This is what ye get for being dramatic_ , she thought viciously.

“He wants to prank Bunnymund,” Rapunzel confessed from where she kneeled near the boys, eyes round. It was impossible to tell if she was hoping to avoid getting in trouble with the faculty or whether she secretly delighted in Jack’s mischief.

“Oh, well in that case…”

Jack tried to knock him with his staff, but on his stomach his aim was non-existent. He missed Hiccup’s shoulder by a mile, sending his staff clattering over the stony beach of the lake. Frost glimmered for a moment over the smooth pebbles, before melting into a trickle of water droplets that tripped over one another to reach the body of the lake.

“I thought ye said ye couldnae make frost?”

“I-”

Hiccup whipped around to Merida. “He can’t make frost?”

“I thought you were just hot?” Rapunzel’s eyebrows knitted. She made as though to run her fingers around a strand of her hair before remembering it was in a tight braid. “Do you think my hair can cure you?”

Jack dropped his face in his hands. “I _am_ just hot! And tired. Too tired to keep cool, I guess.”

Hiccup narrowed his eyes. “Too tired for year-end exams?”

Jack’s hair bounced as he popped up, eyes bright and manic. “Hmmmmmmm…”

Trust Jack to want to get out of exams. _Actually_ , that wasn’t a bad idea… No no, she’d managed to avoid a marriage proposal. Trying to get out of exams too would just be tempting fate.

“You don’t think you’ll feel better in time for exams?” Rapunzel sounded horrified, and rightly so. With exams a week and a half off, it seemed like an awfully long time to be ill.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, a half-smile pulling his freckled cheeks up. “He’ll be fine in time for exams—probably not _ready_ , but fine.”

Jack huffed at the last comment, but Rapunzel frowned. “He will?” she asked. “How do you know?”

Blinking slowly, like a cat just waking up, Hiccup looked around himself almost nervously. “I—read about it. Grandma Frost recommended a few books when I told her your coming of age ceremony had been interesting.”

“Ravenclaw,” Jack snickered.

“Oh, you assume you’re dying because you weren’t listening to the advice older winter sprites gave you, but _I’m_ the one who’s made fun of.”

Jack rolled over onto his back and pillowed his head in his arms. A tilt of his head sent fractals reflecting off his hair around the lake momentarily. He grinned cheekily. “Sure, why not?”

Hiccup stood, as though planning to leave. “Oh well, if that’s how you feel then I guess I’ll go do Ravenclaw nerd things in the library. Good luck dealing with dying-”

“He _is_ gonna die?!” Rapunzel blurted out in a panic.

“Nah,” Merida said. “Ye heard Hiccup; he’ll be fine. Eventually.”

“I _just_ said he was going to die-”

“I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose one of you-”

“No one’s going anywhere, donnae worry yer pretty little head about it-”

 _Splash_.

Merida blinked. Hiccup blinked. Rapunzel blinked. Jack did not blink, because he had just fallen into the lake.

 _If that ninny drowns_ -

Jack surfaced, gasping for breath, and something in Merida relaxed a bit. His robes billowed about him like an inky cloud, swaying with the movement of his treading hands. His stunned face transformed into a grin. “You guys should get in, the water’s great!”

“It’ll take forever for your clothes to dry,” Rapunzel scolded, but she was peeling off her outer layers to join him in the lake.

Frankly, Merida didn’t much care about how heavy her sopping robes would be to drag around later. What did matter was that Jack had gotten in before her, which meant she could get him with a massive spray of water when she jumped in.

_Sploosh!_

“Merida!”

She cackled, relishing in the cool water. “Not so tired now, eh Frost?”

Jack kicked onto his back, starfishing out. “I feel fine, actually.”

He looked better, too. The heated flush had faded from his face, and there was more energy to his movements. His eyes were bright, but with joy rather than the near manic fever they’d reflected earlier. When he tipped his head back under the water and blew bubbles from his nose a few of them froze, bouncing against one another and shattering.

“Duh,” said Hiccup. Merida startled. She hadn’t heard him discard his robes and tie (though they were lying in a blue pile by Rapunzel’s robes and Jack’s staff), much less slip into the water. “Swimming in a natural body of water resets your temperature, or something. I guess your full powers kind of overload your body in the heat after the ceremony? But you should be fine now. I was gonna push you in the lake anyways.”

Jack snorted water, flailing before he managed to right himself. “You would betray me?” Jack asked, speaking through his coughs.

Hiccup swam closer, and gentle currents of water flowed near Merida’s legs at his movement. “Nah.” He looked at her meaningfully. “I’d ask Merida to do it instead.”

She took it as her cue to _swoosh_ her arms together into a great big wave that _slammed_ into Jack’s face. He sputtered and retaliated—or tried. It was actually Rapunzel to get in the next hit, lugging her braid out of the depths and spinning to create a wall of water that slapped them all.

Nearly the rest of the day was spent playing in the lake, with no worries towards shadow men, dark nannies, or mothers; or even the fact that maybe someone should tell Dr. Sweet that Jack was okay. _Hopefully_ , Merida thought, _this year’ll be the last of that_. She looked forwards to having a year with no nightmares or strict parents stealing time with her friends. Next year, they’d finally have a bit of peace.

She couldn’t wait.


End file.
